Bird of the Week: Ruby-crowned Kinglet

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a tiny olive-green songbird with white wing bars and a white eye-ring. The namesake ruby crown is only present on males, and usually hidden. When agitated, it can be flared up into a bright expressive crest.

They are seemingly overflowing with energy and forage frantically through lower branches of shrubs and trees, flicking their wings almost constantly as they go. Ruby-crowned Kinglets eat tiny insects, spiders, and insect eggs that are stuck to the undersides of leaves and twigs.

Ruby-crowned Kinglets breed in tall, dense conifer forests such as spruce, fir and tamarack. Females build a globe-shaped nest that can stretch as the brood grows. They lay a very large clutch of eggs – there can be up to 12 in a single nest.

To learn more about the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, visit https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruby-crowned_Kinglet